POV: Ayla / Zane

Zane does not announce the plan with any of Caius’s quiet authority or Ryker’s blunt direction. He simply appears at my door in the late afternoon with his hands in his pockets and a look that is trying very hard not to be careful.

“Come with me,” he says. “No maps. No ledgers. No one else.”

I study his face for a moment. The usual lightness is present, but it sits thinner than it used to. The bond carries a low, steady tension underneath the easy posture. He has been carrying something since the service corridor and Calder’s confession, and he has been carrying it mostly...